BOB: Dodgers divorce proceedings wind down

Dodgers divorce enters final week

What’s $300 million between soon to be former spouses? Apparently quite a bit because that’s still how far apart Frank and Jamie McCourt stand as they enter their third and final scheduled week in court. Frank has offered around $100 million while Jamie wants $400 million as well as a piece of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

At this point, it looks like it’s going to be up to the judge because I can’t see a settlement happening. As both think they have a strong position, it’ll be interesting to see which way the judge swings things. If you want some great detail on what’s been happening, be sure to check out Josh Fisher’s site, Dodger Divorce. In Josh’s latest, he feels the two sides will eventually settle and he gives some pretty good reasons behind that opinion.

Rangers sale summary

We now all know that the group led by Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan eventually ended up buying the Texas Rangers. While the whole bankruptcy drama made things unique, what I didn’t know was how Greenberg set himself on the path to buy the team. Now in a very detailed article, Jeff Wilson at the Star Telegram documents how Greenberg built both himself up as well as his ownership team.

I found it interesting how Greenberg said he wouldn’t have even taken a run at the team if Ryan had planned on putting his own ownership group together. They both tried to pick up investors who were mostly local and it was also interesting how they swayed some of their eventual investors into pitching in.

In other Texas Rangers news, the team has been rumored to have inked a 20-year television deal with Fox Sports Northwest to the tune of $3 billion. For now, it’s the biggest deal for a team that doesn’t own their own network and it’ll be interesting to see how this contract affects future television deals. That works out to $150 million a year and the story compares it to the Los Angeles Dodgers current deal. Even in the bigger market, the Dodgers are getting just $45 million a year. So much for recession economics at least in Texas, which according to what I’ve read, is one of the areas that’s showing the most growth.

What’s in a PDC?

I’m a big fan of Benjamin Hill over at MiLB.com and this piece on player development contracts is one of the reasons. It’s an even numbered year and that means we usually see at least some, and sometime a lot, of shuffling as far as minor-league affiliates go. Last week I touched on how the Rangers and Houston Astros effectively swapped Triple-A affiliates and you’ll be seeing more of that in the months to come.

In this column, Hill sits down with Tim Purpura, Minor League Baseball’s executive vice president and COO. One thing I didn’t know was that the teams have until Sept. 30 to pair up with a team. If they’re unable to, then the league steps in and begins making decisions. Purpura also commented on how there’s been a lot more interest in keeping current relationships going after a tumultuous 2008.

In other minor league news, I haven’t seen the official attendance press release yet but Maury Brown reported that attendance was down but just by .5 percent from last year with a 41.4 million draw. This is impressive considering some of the losses at the box office that we’ve seen within MLB.